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Date Climbed
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Return to the Kansas
Kansas' County
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In 1996 I popped into Kansas to visit its state highpoint at Mount Sunflower. It was a fun little side trip, albeit in stormy weather, and I enjoyed the corny little railroad-spike sculptures at the 'summit'. Kansas makes no bones about it being flat; they know it and they're proud of it. I probably would not have given Kansas another look were it not for a couple things: (1) I was in Kenton, Oklahoma, for the 2002 State Highpointers Convention, and (2) I was motivated for some insane reason to connect the Kansas state highpoint county into my 'glob', a connected region of counties that extends for all of the southwest and into parts of the midwest.
I did two Kansas counties on the 20th of September with a large group of conventioneers. The 21st was supposed to be a group hike up Black Mesa in Oklahoma, but since I'd hiked that one twice already I decided to go my own way and spend a long day doing as many of the southwestern Kansas county highpoints as I could. I got a pre-dawn start, and managed to do fairly well. It was an interesting day, including one rather close snake encounter, plus the usual miles of flatness. Kansas may not be much to look at but I had fun. I was able to gain nine new counties, missing out on two others due to time in one case, and an overgrown field in another.
Our convoy of 5 vehicles left the Prowers (Colorado) highpoint and made the 40 mile drive over local highways and dirt roads into Kansas, entering at the community of Saunders along US-160 along the state line. I was shotgun in the lead vehicle, with Ken Jones driving and Dave Covill and Dave Olson in the back. From Saunders we went south about a mile on a local road, east a little over a mile, then south again. We were supposed to find a two-track trending west about a mile after our last turn, but we overshot it, probably because we were not paying attention. We backtracked and found it fine, and drive in. It was overgrown considerably but we were able to get everyone in the half-mile or so; even our passenger-car vehicle in the convoy made it.
The highpoint is a broad brush-covered "hill", barely discernable, about another quarter-mile of hiking west from where we parked. The 20 of us all pretty much took off west, some trending slightly southwest, toward the top, marked by some farm implements. The brush was about shin-high and snakes were on my mind, but we saw none. Dave Olson and I arrived first and the rest followed very shortly. We all just sort of milled about, some using sight-levels to verify our position. It certainly was an odd event to be with 20 others in the middle of a Kansas field! We walked back to the vehicles and had our lunch, before heading south into Morton county.
• Topozone
Morton County was our second Kansas county of the day and fourth overall, as 20 of us convoyed down the back roads of southwestern Kansas after having hit the Stanton highpoint to our north. Morton county present some challenges: there are 13 areas overall that reach 3,690 feet... so we'd be obliged to visit all 13, or at least try to sight-level some likely better candidates from the 13.
The first area is along the county's western boundary with Colorado, and was easily reached with a short drive south from KS-51 about 1 mile south along a good dirt road right on the state line. This area stretches another mile south, and likely doesn't rise more than a foot or two above the 3,690 stated on the map. Some berms on the Kansas side of the road made for easily visited but artificial "highpoints", but in lieu of anything better, we all took our turns tromping on these brush-covered berms.
The remaining 12 areas are all located in the extreme southwest corner of the county (and the state, for that matter). We came to this area from the town of Elkhart, and drove all the way to the tri-state corner of Kansas, Colorado and Oklahoma. A faux-windmill monument makes a nice marker, and a small parking area allows for convenient parking and nice views. In fact, one of the 12 highpoint areas is right at this parking area and monument. (The actual tri-state point itself is in the middle to the road and is marked by a circular disk about 2 feet in diameter, with 3 witness markers pointing to it from the south, northeast and northwest)
For the other areas, we hiked north then east about 3/8 mile to a clearly defined hump, and from there continued eastish and southish back to the road, doing our best to stand atop the highest humps we could see. About 3 or 4 hills seemed to vie for contention. The consensus seemed to be that the highest areas were likely in the large contour located just about 1/4 mile east of the tri-corner, marked "#2" on my map below. A remaining large area was another 3/4 mile east and was easily visited along the road. In all, we spent about an hour here. The views were surprisingly nice! The land is scrubby sand dunes and hillocks. From here we convoyed back into Oklahoma for a visit to Texas County, Oklahoma.
• Topozone (northern area),
(southern areas)
Today started very early, well before sun-up, as I was staying and visiting with everyone at the 2002 Highpointers convention in Kenton, Oklahoma. The previous day a group of us had hit 5 counties north and east of Kenton before arriving back for dinner. Today was to be the "official" climb of the Oklahoma state highpoint, Black Mesa. But I'd already climbed it twice before, so I used today to do a highpoint tour of my own, the intent being to go to Kansas and do a series of counties so as to connect the state highpoint, which I did in 1996, into my "home glob", a continuous set of counties extending from my home in Phoenix and into California, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Texas, Oklahoma and now Kansas. So I left Kenton at 5 a.m. local time and made the drive through Boise City and then northeast toward Elkhart, Kansas, about 80 miles. Just north of Elkhart on US-54 I turned right onto a local paved route, County Road C, which went due east and right into the rising sun. I was able to deal with that and drive another 15 miles or so into Stevens county and near the Stevens highpoints.
There are six distinct areas rising over 3,335 feet located in a clump about 2 miles north of Road C, about a mile inside the county, inside Voorhees Township. I took a road north for a mile until it dead ended, forcing me back onto the main road. I ended up taking a more substantial (but sandy) road one mile east and two miles north, to where it curved west again. The main road curved north; my road was a sandy two-track heading west into an area where 5 of the 6 highpoints can be found. The first area, the easternmost one, was about 0.6 miles west along this road, and located about 200 feet south. I parked and made the easy walk out to this dense scrub-covered sandy hill, which had reasonable prominence for this part of the country. Next, I drove another mile or so to a distinct rise in the road, which actually crests on another highpoint area. From here, a third highpoint hillock was about 0.25 miles south, while two more were about 0.25 miles north of this road, themselves separated by about 0.25 miles. I decided to park my truck roughly in the middle of these 4 regions, and I walked all four in one hike, walking a total of about a mile in a rough circle to get them all. The individual hills were easy to spot, but none seemed higher than the rest. I had to breach two fences but there was no posting against doing so, and no one was nearby so far as I could tell. The buzz from a nearby well provided some noise.
The final area was accessed by driving back east onto the "main" dirt road, going north a mile, then west about 0.8 mile to a poor road cut that was not marked on the topo. The highpoint area is about 0.6 miles north through the same kind of scrub, but I was able to knock off about half that by driving the road to a locked gate at a gas well. Again, no signs against trespassing. I hopped the fence, walked the sandy road north, then simply ran up the hill to its top... surprisingly steep! In all, getting all 6 areas took about an hour of my time. I did use 4-wheel drive on some of these roads as the sand was quite loose. From here I proceeded back onto the paved Road C and east into Seward county for a go at its highpoint and a local snake.
• Topozone (1 northern area), (5 southern areas)
This was my second Kansas highpoint for the day, coming in from the west after completing the 6 areas for neighboring Stevens county. I got kind of lost when I came upon a junction in a road that I was not expecting. Actually I was expecting a county-line sign, then from there I'd use that as a reference to get to the highpoint area. But the road I was on was just a local paved road with no such sign. I was able to figure out where I was after some exploring, and I found the highpoint hill located along Road B about 1.5 miles south of Road 5, in Liberal Township (the city of Liberal is about 7 miles away). It's located in a farm area dotted with sandy, scrubby hills. This particular hill has about 35 feet of prominence - not a lot by most standards, but it may very well be the most significant escarpment in the state of Kansas!
I went west on this service road about a half mile to an oil well, where I parked and started the short hike in. The main hill's summit was easily reached in about 10 minutes as I negotiated the knee-high scrub, always keeping an eye out for snakes. So far on all my hikes in this kind of terrain, I hadn't seen any snakes and was starting to get kind of over-confident. All that was to change pretty fast! To call this highpoint good, I was obliged to hike over another 100 feet or so to another small rise sharing a 2,995-foot contour. Literally on top of that hill, as I was stepping along, I came upon a snake! A nice, fat rattler, splayed out and sunning himself. He was not coiled or mad, but I got THE HELL out of there! Yikes... I was quickly reminded that I never really have liked snakes much, and seeing one as close as I did spooked me pretty good. But now I was all paranoid, thinking there was a snake now under every tuft of grass or bush, so I hiked out with extreme care and was damn glad to ge back out where I could see my feet when I walked!
In honor of my snake encounter, I dub this highpoint Snake Hill.
• Topozone
Driving up from Seward County I came upoin the very easy county highpoints of MEade County, both found along good county roads. This one required no hiking.
The largest area is on the actual northwest corner, at the intersection of Roads A and 1, an elongated stretch of land enclosed in a 2,825-foot contour, with two places having spot elevations of 2,828 feet. It really wasn't easy to discern any distinct humps; the grading of the road and of the nearby land may have altered the natural lay of the land. The second area is reached by going 2 miles south from the northwest corner intersection, then a mile east, then about 1.2 miles south, where the road crests over a tiny 2,825-foot contour, which may be artificial due to road construction. In any case, easily visited. (I actually visited these in reverse order as I came from the south from the town of Plains. With DeLorme handy, it's easy to find these points)
• Topozone (large northern area only)
Another easy highpoint located on the county's northwest corner, similar to my last experience in Meade County. However, Grant County proved to be kind of challenging. One, I didn't have a map with me. Dave Covill loaned me his copy at the Highpointers Convention down in Kenton, Oklahoma, which I was attending, but apparently I left it behind when I left for the day to come up to Kansas for highpoints. So I did this one from memory. I knew it was very near the northwest corner of the county, but to be sure I drove west to the county line and took a bad road called Road A up and down a bit, stepping out and walking any slight rise I came upon.
Unfortunately Road A doesn't continue through so to get to the other parts where Road A was meant I had to find other roads that would lead to it... and in the process I had to detour nearly 20 extra miles until I was finally able to catch the road from the north in Kearny county. Following my DeLorme Road Atlas I got to the junction in the roads at which the northwest corner of Grant county sits. Then I drove south about a half-mile. A "No Trespassing" sign was on a small post, facing the field to my west. The sign read the usual "Trespassers will be prosecuted". On it, the owner had crossed out "Trespassers" and written in "Survivors". I guess he means business. I'm pretty sure it was for the adjacent field. In any case, I drove the short stretch of this road and got out briefly at a small rise about 0.5 miles south of the junction. It wasn't until I got back to Kenton that night that I looked on the map and verified that I had in fact visited the right place. The land is so flat here... but I could still sense the barest of rises on the road.
• Topozone
Kearny County has to get my vote as the least memorable highpoint of this trip. After I'd got back to Kenton and was going through my notes, I honestly could not recall what I saw there for a bit, even though I knew I visited it! The highpoint is just a single blob of land surrounded by a 3,435-foot contour in the northwest corner of the county, accessible via a number of good dirt roads. There is a spot elevation of 3,436 where one such road crosses this area. I chose to drive to that spot-elevation first and scout from there.
The road up to this area, called Road B (I think) is excellent hard-pack. I took another lesser road west from the main road, carefully paying attention to my odometer to ensure I was on the right road. The road crests slightly toward the end, and I parked and walked the area. I walked north about 200 feet amid short scrub to a large bald area. Sighting and general scanning of the area indicated nothing significantly higher, so I called it good and got going, now on to Greeley County.
• Topozone
The Greeley highpoint is located way up on the county's northeast corner, right on the Colorado state line. I came up from Kearny and had plans to go get Wichita county, to the immediate north. But I was running low on gas so I decided to detour to the closest town, Tribune, to fill up. I pretty much followed excellent dirt roads until I caught the main highway north to Tribune (I wonder if the locals shorten it to "Trib"?). It was about noonish when I was in Tribune.
From Tribune I went north until I caught Road D, a major dirt connector that took me west to the state line (marked as Road 1), then north from there about 2 miles up a sketchy road between two fields. The only interesting thing was that the road dropped into a steep-cut drainage at South Ladder Creek, then up the other side. The highpoint itself is where the road crests. I walked east a little bit, but as usual, it was too flat to call one point higher than the rest. Now, it was on back to Kenton, Oklahoma, 200 miles away. In the process I picked up Hamilton county's highpoint, about 30 miles south.
In case you're wondering, there is a theme with the place names here in Greeley county. The seat is called Tribune. Another small nearby community is called Horace. Put it all together and you have Horace Greeley, the famed owner of the N.Y. Tribune, famous for his "Go west, young man" mantra.
• Topozone
After a successful drive to the Greeley highpoint, I started the long (200+ miles) drive back south to Kenton, Oklahoma, where I would hopefully arrive back in time for the evening's festivities. This was part of the 2002 Highpointers convention, and tonight was the main banquet and awards and dignitaries and all that, so I didn't want to miss any of it. It was about 3:00 p.m. "Kenton" time when I left the Greeley area. The Hamilton county highpoints were on the way, so it was easy to pick these up. I must say, Kansas has some of the best maintained dirt roads I've ever used! I zipped down these roads at 70 mph with little problem and absolutely zero traffic. These roads covered just about every section line so navigating is cake... just pay attention to the intermittent road signs to reckon your location. The Hamilton highpoints are three large (200-400 acres each) areas in the northwest part of the county near the Colorado line, in Richland Township.
The first area, the northernmost one, was reached first. I parked at a corner of two roads and walked about a quarter-mile into the low scrub to where I best gauged the area to be based on the map. The second area was a mile to the southwest and accessed by a poor dirt/sand road, and again, required a short walk into flat terrain. The first area was on some public hunting land, the second seemed to be a fallow farm field. In any case, the relief here was minimal. The third and final area is another 2 miles south and west, accessed by another variable-quality road. Here, there is some relief. The south side of the road has some small bumps which I went out to explore. They seemed to be old foundations of some buildings, judging by the shape and old junk found nearby. They're probably man made bumps. I drove also to a T-junction north of BM-Davis, which actually put me in Colorado, but from here I could reckon my location and try my best to gauge where the state line would be. Some minor pacing was done; I'd estimate that the highest point is probably found in this southernmost area, and probably south of the dirt access road that cuts the area.
From here I followed more of these good dirt roads south through the town of Coolidge, which was (supposedly) featured in the movie National Lampoon's Vacation. I took a paved route into the town of Holly, Colorado, then paved CO-89 south 35 miles to its junction with US-160, then west into Springfield, where I showered at a truck stop. From here I followed more local dirt roads through some beautiful mesas and canyons in southern Baca county, basically retracing our route from yestaerday's Baca trip. I arrived in Kenton at 6 p.m., well in time to have a beer and enjoy a great dinner with everyone at the convention.
• Topozone
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(c) 2002, 2006 Scott Surgent. For entertainment purposes only. This report is not meant to replace maps, compass, gps and other common sense hiking/navigation items. Neither I nor the webhost can be held responsible for unfortunate situations that may arise based on these trip reports. Conditions (physical and legal) change over time! Some of these hikes are major mountaineering or backpacking endeavors that require skill, proper gear, proper fitness and general experience. |